Doubts as Sri Lanka says Commonwealth meeting open

As Sri Lanka prepares to host the biennial
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo in November, some
journalists have wondered whether they will be able to access the summit given
the island nation's abysmal press freedom record.

On Saturday, a subcommittee of the government
taskforce organizing the summit issued a press
release stating that "Sri Lanka is committed to providing
full media access" and that it "welcomes all journalists to cover this very
important summit."

In a recent letter
to the Commonwealth Secretariat, CPJ expressed concern about the accreditation
procedures amid press reports that the Sri Lankan government will conduct
stringent background checks on foreign journalists covering the meeting, with
the apparent intention of denying permission to enter the country.

Richard Uku, spokesman for the Secretariat,
responded to CPJ's executive director via Twitter, stating that the Secretariat
is the final
authority on media accreditation procedures for international
journalists.

But the signals are still mixed. Since then, local
media have raised
the issue of whether journalists like Callum Macrae, producer of the bold
Channel 4 documentary, "No War Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka," will be
allowed into the country. Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella responded
by saying the government will have final say over who is allowed in, underscoring
the lingering concerns. Some journalists predict that Sri Lanka will find ways
to deny visas to journalists who have been critical of the country, even if
they are granted accreditation from the Secretariat.

This week, Bandula
Jayasekara, Sri Lanka's consul-general in Sydney, vowed to block Macrae's entry,
according to press reports­--after referring to him in a Twitter tirade as a
"mercenary with blood money" and "the Chief Propagandist of the LTTE terrorists
overseas," referring to the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam:

@Callum_Macrae I have bn consistent about what I have said /say about you Chief propagandist of the LTTE terror rump Callum Mercenary

Sri Lanka has a long track record of obstructing the
independent press. In the past year, Colombo has introduced
a draft media code in parliament that would impose harsh restrictions on
journalists' ability to report freely (it has been withdrawn for now, under
criticism) and interrupted
transmissions of BBC's Tamil service while the ethnic Tamil press continues to
face attacks.

Sumit Galhotra is the research associate for CPJ's Asia program. He served as CPJ's inaugural Steiger Fellow and has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories, and specializes in human rights and South Asia.

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